With a yawn I rose from bed, sheets falling aside as I glanced at the LED clock on my bedside dresser.
05:00 a.m.
Still pretty early so I wasn’t going to dismiss HK yet but based on what I was feeling, no change in his position over the entire night, nothing must’ve happened at Toga’s place.
That was a good sign at least.
I stretched out, nothing but the lasting aching of all my workouts spreading a dull pain across my body.
After Toga’s blood ran its course, all my scrapes, bruises, and the few burns I was real careful about keeping hidden, had been dealt with.
I wasn’t sure how well it’d deal with a stab but it’s nice to wake up without all that.
Things were off to a good start.
I might as well do that advantage pull and see what I got.
[Rolling Advantage Bronze Familiar Ticket…]
[Tentacle Cleaner
|Common Familiar|
A large ball of tentacles covered in a slimy substance, which is actually an incredible cleaning agent that has no smell or leaves any residue.
The tentacle creature is very dexterous and skilled, being able to clean even the most complex of machinery without disturbing its mechanisms due to its morphing tentacles.
No combat ability but they are very dedicated to their job.
OR
|Schrodinger’s cat|
|Common Familiar|
A regular-looking cat, but in reality it is the Schrodinger’s cat, being able to teleport freely as long as it is not being observed and being immortal as it comes back to whenever its corpse is not observed.]
Weird pulls, neither with any real bearing on my ability in a fight.
I guess the tenacle thing would be useful if I was feeling lazy even if it sounded a bit odd.
HK didn’t say anything about it but maybe it’d help clean his parts too?
I don’t think he really needed to bother with that kind of upkeeping though, he always summoned in perfect condition, any dirt he might’ve gathered walking around in the park gone.
On the other hand, an immortal teleporting cat.
…I didn’t want to risk stealing anything myself but if this cat was as smart as Scarlet, couldn’t I try using it to get myself some item tickets?
Surely getting my familiars to steal things would count as me doing it.
Fuck it, immortal cat it was.
Settling on that, with just a thought, a cat, front paws first, appearing out of thin air, landed on my bed.
A clean coat of jet black fur and distinctly crimson eyes that were exactly like mine and Scarlet’s, slitted pupil aside, the cat would definitely stand out to anyone paying attention to it.
Unlike Scarlet, it took a bit more energy to summon it but far less than what was required for HK-47.
As it walked towards me, I blinked.
Weight appeared on my head, paws lazily hung near my forehead at the upper limit of my vision.
There goes the freaking teleporting.
Definitely cooler to see than read about.
Reaching up I picked the cat up and held it in front of me.
No way I was going to test the immortal part, but I set it down and held out my arm out to the side.
“Can you teleport onto my arm?” I questioned as the cat began to stretch.
A blink later and it did just that, my arm lowering a bit as it continued its uninterrupted stretches on it.
“You and I are going to do great things together.” I decided after looking into its eyes, the cat yawning.
If it could teleport with anything it had in its mouth or put on it, I had some ideas.
XOXO
Should I rob a bank?
No, no, that was escalating too quickly.
If I went down such a route, I needed to start small.
People’s wallets?
A small store?
A museum?
Normally I wouldn’t be considering any of that, the attention still not worth it in my opinion but now that could be easily bypassed using my newest familiar.
Beyond that, how harmful was stealing if I returned everything I took?
I was in it for the possible tickets not to get rich or anything so if I did things right, no one would ever be looking into what I was up to.
It was a gamble I was far more willing to take rather than doing the stealing myself.
I just needed to-
“Akaguro!” Arms wrapped around my neck, soft warmth pressing into the side of my face.
Toga, the usual small smile she used to hide her teeth in place, had come into my class like she did every morning, but rather than going for her friends first, she came straight to me, her cheek pressed into mine.
“Good morning.”
She was in a good mood.
And touchier than normal.
“Morning, Toga.” I said, ignoring a flash of hopefully unnoticed embarrassment.
A hug was just a hug, even if it caught me by surprise, but after the private information this whole gacha system decided to reveal to me it was just a bit weird.
I mean, knowing what she’d probably been doing with her hands- You are reading on g.com, the official source.
Nope, nope.
Don’t go down that line of thinking.
Not in the middle of class of all places.
I expected her to let me go after the cherry greeting but she just raised herself, hands placed on my shoulders and chin positioned on my head, faintly humming to herself.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
For her drinking someone’s blood must’ve been the barrier to cross; something like this didn’t compare to that sort of thing.
“Having a good day?” I asked.
“Not going to try and get rid of me?”
“In a bit.” I said going along with her.
“You shouldn’t be cutting getting to class so close every day in the first place.”
We probably, no, we definitely stood out.
Public affection wasn’t really a common thing in Japan compared to some other cultures, many things that other set of memories would’ve called standard considered excessive here.
And here was Toga, the both of us not even dating, pretty much hugging me in plain view of everyone.
But it’s not like I minded.
As long as she didn’t cross any lines, like biting me out of nowhere, I was just going to let her figure out what she considered her norm.
Not that I thought she would do that.
That closed mouth smile of hers, even if it was a little bigger than usual, was still meant to keep her teeth hidden.
She was still intent on keeping that reputation of hers, which was better than something drastic.
I don’t think every part of Toga’s outgoing friendliness was truly an act.
Hopefully she found some middle ground where she could feel more comfortable without being labeled a freak someday.
Which didn’t include hurting anyone.
XOXO
“Alright, are you dating or something?”
I barely got my lunch out before my desk was flanked by a pair of girls.
My classmates that doubled as Toga’s friends.
One was a good looking girl with long dark brown hair and the other was a pretty tall…ferret looking girl?
Between her longer than normal neck, the circular ears coming from her animal like head, and pinkish-white skin, I still wasn’t sure about the exact details, but she was a heteromorph.
I never paid it much attention, but it was interesting to see how wildly diverse that spectrum was, Tsu barely registering as one in my mind.
A very specific kind of person would go out of their way to label me one based off my tongue alone.
Shame how discrimination went beyond worlds, but society was going to society.
“You’re asking me about Toga, right?” I asked while opening up the bento Aunt Nozomi prepared for me.
“Obviously.” The long haired girl said.
As a few people nearby left for the cafeteria, they pulled over a pair of seats, sitting around my desk.
“I thought she was just being nice to you because nobody talks to you.
You know, taking pity on the weird loner.”
“Umi!” The heteromorph exclaimed softly.
“She didn’t mean that.”
“She’s just saying the truth.” I said, shrugging.
Before this merging of memories, in this world I hadn’t exactly tried fitting in and like we kids tend to do, the status quo left anyone who didn’t try to fit into it someway an outcast.
“We’re not dating.”
Disposal chopsticks opened up and snapped apart, I picked up a piece of the orange chicken from the side.
“Akaguro!” Dodging past those leaving the room, Toga popped into the classroom.
Giving her friends a wave, she didn’t waste any time coming over, standing directly beside me.
“Are you guys friends?”
“We we’re just asking him about you.” The longer haired one said, a brow raised.
“You aren’t going to eat with the rest of us down in the cafeteria?”
“I am.
I just wanted to see if Akaguro want to come with us.” Toga said, nodding.
“You guys don’t mind, do you?”
“Sounds good to me.” The long haired one said, the pair’s inquisitive stares burrowing deeper into me.
Holding back a sigh, I lowered my piece of chicken and closed my box, preparing to follow them.
I wasn’t the biggest fan of groups, but I was faintly curious about all of Toga’s friends.
And who knows, changing how the teachers viewed me came with a ticket; there was no reason the same wouldn’t apply to the other students.
XOXO
[Feat Accomplished!
Rise from weird loner to well known weird kid.
+1 Bronze Trait Gacha Ticket] This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
I chuckled a little as I swapped out my shoes, moving along with the rest of the crowd leaving the school’s main building.
Spend one day around some popular kids and suddenly I’m known.
The power of gossip at work, I guess.
Being among them hadn’t been enough to dispel the fact that I went so long without making any friends and randomly yelled in class though.
I wonder what ranked ticket I’d get if I ended up having an actually good reputation among the other students.
Either way, even if a lot of these bronze ranked tickets were looking like a hit or miss in terms of helping in the future, I was way too eager about getting a trait remotely similar to Fast reflexes to wait until the day was over.
Time to pull!
[Rolling Bronze Trait Ticket…]
[Flexible
|Common Trait|
You are inordinately flexible, even more so than an expert contortionist.]
Flexibility?
Against someone like All For One I didn’t see something like that making a difference if I ever had to defend myself against him but on paper it wasn’t useless.
High kicks and all sorts of other motions that’d require some flexibility would be on the table once I had the strength to match.
I’ll have to give the flexibility a test later.
“Akaguro!” I hummed, opening a few windows with a thought.
—/Traits—
Mysterious Stranger
Scenic Wind
Fast Reflexes
Flexible
—/Skills—
Novice Stealth
Novice stealth, fast reflexes, and flexible.
Throw in Scarlet too.
Lowkey I was drifting towards something of stealth or rogue build if I were talking games.
If I had some control over this gacha I might’ve chosen to lean into it but at this point I could only hope I didn’t end up some jack of all trades that couldn’t handle any real big threat.
As long as I kept training, I wouldn’t have to worry but I wasn’t sure how far Bloodboost would take me yet.
My hand shot up grasping the finger coming towards my cheek.
“Are you ignoring me?” I blinked, surprised to find Toga beside me pouting.
That was weird.
It wasn’t like I’d moved faster than usual or anything.
I just noticed something coming my way and acted on the spot; it was like that split second, where fight or flight should’ve left me frozen after being surprised just hadn’t happened.
I saw something coming and was instantly deciding how to deal with it, even if I hadn’t been fully prepared.
Fast Reflexes at work?
“Sorry, Toga.” I said.
“Did you say something?”
“You really were ignoring me.” She complained but she bounced back quickly.
“You’re going to a gym, right?
Can I come with you?”
If it weren’t for the fact that I had lunch with them and heard all their plans, a few of her friends busy with cramming or clubs while others had to go back home, I would’ve been a little worried she was prioritizing me over friends she already had it.
For anyone else, especially with her apparent crush on me, it wouldn’t be something to worry about.
It kind of came with the whole crushing territory to some degree.
But with her obsession and habits, Toga ever going down that path and falling out of touch with her friends just screamed some form of unhealthy dependency on me.
I was not down for that shit.
“Sure.” I said.
My membership came with the benefit of bringing a guest or two and she was free.
With her quirk, if she decided to be a hero and attend U.A.
she could be a massive game changer in how certain things played out.
But that would ultimately be her choice to make.
For now, we were just hanging out.
XOXO
(A/N: I hate editing so much but if I don’t edit all my stuff is pure trash.
Truly the pain of creating stuff.
You guys should count yourselves lucky you never have to see the mess I have to make coherent after finishing a chapter.
My brain is way faster than my hands to the point sentences don’t even make sense sometimes.
So troublesome.)